Long duty hrs make beat constables an unhappy lot

Working in Delhi Police is always a tough job. And if you are a beat constable, the job gets even tougher. Reason: long working hours, multi-tasks and virtually no rest.

Working in Delhi Police is always a tough job. And if you are a beat constable, the job gets even tougher. Reason: long working hours, multi-tasks and virtually no rest.

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“If you are posted as a beat constable, you are supposed to be on your toes round-the-clock,” Harinder Sharma (name changed), a constable posted with a Central Delhi police station said. “No force offers you 10 to 5 job, but there

has to be some mechanism which can decide our schedule,” he added.

A beat constable has to wake up at 6am to go to the police station where he is posted. If the constable’s house is far from the police station, he ends up spending three hours in travelling.

“One of my colleagues is posted at the Narela police station and he has been given a falt at Malviya Nagar. This means, he spends at least three hours travelling, apart from his duty hours. We all are facing the same problem,” Sharma added.

The long working hours and attitude of seniors reflect on their work and the most important part of the Delhi Police —the beat constable — is frustrated with the work culture.

“A few days ago, I went at 11pm to rest at my barrack. Suddenly, I received a call that the local police want to run a drive of picket checking. We all had to rush to the stand at picket,” he added.

“Despite all the hard work, we are always at the receiving end. We are vulnerable all the time and the recent incidents of attack on police personnel have demoralised us,” he further said.